On-Demand: The Latest From Washington
In late November, with tax reform heading toward final passage, NACUBO kept a close eye on the tax bill as it headed to the Senate floor. Given the importance of this topic, NACUBO experts scheduled a special follow-up webcast, Tax Reform: Where Things Stand and What You Need to Do Now. Liz Clark, senior director, federal affairs, NACUBO; and Brian Flahaven, senior director for advocacy, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, updated nearly 250 attendees on how the bill could impact campuses in areas such as charitable giving, endowments, unrelated business income tax, and advance refunding bonds. Both speakers also provided listeners with ways to reach out to their representatives in Congress and urged attendees to communicate their concerns.
Additionally, NACUBO’s federal affairs team also hosted its fifth, free, 30-minute legislative lunchcast, discussing the latest higher education news from Washington. The webcast, titled Legislative Lunchcast: A Washington Update From NACUBO, included more than 600 attendees who tuned in to hear about federal actions that have the potential to impact campuses, as well as notes from the panel about advocacy, financial responsibility, and communicating the value of higher education.
These recordings are currently available on-demand and can be accessed by visiting www.nacubo.org and clicking on the “Distance Learning” tab.
NACUBO’s E-Learning is supported by: Crowe.
The NACUBO publication College and University Business Administration (CUBA) has released a new chapter, focusing on risk management.
As higher education’s risk profile has increased, the concept of risk management has undergone several striking shifts in emphasis. From its original focus on insurance and financial loss, risk management has expanded to include a much broader range of assessments about reputation and strategic objectives.
Highly publicized events over the past several years—sexual assaults, student protests, athletic injuries, cyberattacks, and international events—have sensitized boards, presidents, and business officers to the multiple dangers threatening higher education institutions.
Authored by Janice Abraham, CEO of United Educators, the new chapter in CUBA explores the expansion of the risk management profile to include a view across the entire enterprise and critical information about insurance options.
This chapter is available as a complimentary resource to NACUBO members. To download a copy, visit http://products.nacubo.org/.
Read also “Confronting Catastrophe,” which provides an overview and excerpt of the new CUBA chapter; and in the feature article “In Anticipation,” senior leaders explain how to incorporate enterprise risk management into strategic
The annual exhibit of campus efficiency posters will be on display again this year at the NACUBO 2018 Annual Meeting, in Long Beach, Calif.
The posters, which tell a story through a mixture of graphics, illustrations, photos, and data, give colleges and universities the opportunity to display details about efficiency and sustainability projects on their campuses. Posters will highlight energy efficiency, utility-related savings, resilience and risk mitigation, zero waste efforts, student sustainability, Co2 reduction, and many other topics.
Posters will be on display from Sunday, July 22, until the end of the conference on Tuesday, July 24. Institutions that submit a campus efficiency poster will receive one speaker discount on their annual meeting registration, during the advanced rate period only. Institutions should confirm their intention to participate by Jan. 31, 2018, and no discounts will be given to those who have already registered. Visit www.nacuboannualmeeting.org and click on the “Participate” tab for more information.
To view posters from previous years, visit www.nacubo.org and click on “Sustainability.”
NACUBO’s distance learning programs are 75-minute sessions, covering the most relevant and timely topics in higher education. These webcasts have the same impact as our in-person workshops and meetings, but allow more flexibility to attend, with the option of returning to the sessions for repeat viewings after the initial air date.
Understanding the value of these programs, and considering the myriad changes happening on college campuses, NACUBO has developed several distance learning events to be aired during the first quarter of the new year. The following webcasts are available for registration:
- Discover lessons learned for mergers in higher education. Titled Leadership Lessons from the Merger Front, this webcast will examine how The Boston Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, Boston, explored and assessed the full spectrum of possible alliances, from shared facilities or services to a full asset merger. Hear how leaders harmonized strategic ideas and developed a new vision and strategic plan for the combined entity. Speakers will also share their lessons learned around governance issues, credit market impacts, and unforeseen “bumps in the road.”
- Strategies for optimizing building efficiencies. In Deferred Maintenance—Strategic Approaches to Success, two campuses present a few options that they have pursued in optimizing the building efficiencies that can then lead to reduced operating costs and increased student satisfaction, as well as improved recruitment and retention of faculty, staff, and students.
- Results of the 2017 NACUBO-Commonfund endowment study. Broadcasting live from the 2018 Endowment and Debt Management Forum, to be held in New York City, February 7–9, the session “Results from the 2017 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments” will provide an overview of the results of the annual survey, a look at the challenges endowment managers faced in FY17, and review the strategies that institutions used to confront volatile market conditions during the year. Speakers will also discuss the challenges that investment pros and chief business officers will face in FY18 and beyond.
- Learn how to prevent fraud through ethical decision making. The webcast, Ethics vs. Fraud: Similarities, Differences, and Ensuring Accountability, will emphasize the importance of establishing an ethical culture and promoting ethical decision making with the goal of preventing fraud in institutions. Although some unethical decision making does not constitute fraud, such actions still have institutionwide ramifications. Speakers will discuss these concepts, in addition to examining recent scenarios that have occurred at colleges and universities.
NACUBO will continue to develop programs to add to the distance learning calendar. To register for any of these webcasts, visit www.nacubo.org and click the “Distance Learning” tab.
NACUBO’s E-Learning is supported by: Crowe.
As Congress moved swiftly forward with tax reform legislation, which will have a significant impact on colleges and universities, NACUBO developed a resource page that breaks down key provisions of the Senate and House bills, explains the effect on higher education, and shares stories from member institutions about how the proposed cuts might affect their students. It also provided ways for individual members to contact their legislators in Congress.
To make reaching your senators and representatives an easy and seamless process, the American Council on Education, in coordination with NACUBO and other higher education associations, developed a “Contact Congress” template that allowed you to send an e-mail to your senators and representatives regarding the tax cuts. A message—that individuals could tailor specifically to their institutions—was preloaded into the template. Members needed only to add a few personal details to include name, e-mail, mailing address, and ZIP code.
For individuals active on social media, this page also lists several hashtags that you can use to engage and elevate the conversation.
Finally, the resource page includes a link to Tax Reform: A Call to Action for Colleges and Universities. A NACUBO-developed guide, it includes background information and talking points on NACUBO’s top issues of concern, such as charitable giving, endowments, tax-exempt bond financing, and other issues.
To access these resources, visit www.nacubo.org, click on “Initiatives,” and then “Tax Reform.”
NACUBO CONTACT Liz Clark, senior director of federal affairs, 202.861.2553, @lizclarknacubo
